In article loading machines and specifically in bottle handling machines, bottles are typically conveyed on a conveyor in a comingled manner. It is often necessary to separate the articles into aligned parallel rows for further conveyance of the articles to a packing station. At the packing station the bottles are often packed into containers which are partitioned. The separation of the articles or bottles into parallel rows by indexing means facilitates the packing of the bottles into the containers or cartons. Aligning of the commingled bottles into parallel rows is a problem to which considerable attention is given in the bottling and canning industries.
Prior bottle handling machines such as the case packing machine shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,481,108 and No. 3,555,770 use a plurality of parallel spaced guide rails for separating a comingled group of bottles into aligned parallel rows. Often, however, the bottles become tilted on the conveyor and fall over in front of the guide rails, causing the bottles to jam up in front of the guide rails and requiring the stopping of the conveyor and repositioning of the bottles in an upright position by a machine attendant. U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,195 discloses cone-shaped guide members which wedge the tilted bottles into an upright position so that they may be guided individually into the parallel rows between the spaced rails.
Swing-arm article guiding chutes have been disclosed for use on bottle loading packing machines to feed the bottles into lanes. One proposed swing-arm device was manufactured by the Vicker's Miller/Hydro Manufacturing Company of Bainbridge, Georgia. To swing the chute, optical sensors activate electrical solenoid switches which, in turn, control an electric motor to swing the chute across the conveyor. An air cylinder piston rod provides a gate to hold the leading bottle in the chute until a lane is reached. The optical/solenoid control swing-arm device is complicated and expensive owing to the electrical wiring and other electrical elements required. The environment in which the swing-arm chute operates is not entirely suitable for optical sensor operation.
In my son's co-pending application entitled "Apparatus for Aligning and Feeding Articles Upright on an Article Loading Machine", Ser. No. 06/593,574, filed on Mar. 26, 1984, an article machine having a pivoting article chute is disclosed. In that machine, article clamps are provided adjacent the exit of the pivoting article chute for releasing an article carried therein into a lane at a predetermined time. The pivoting chute is indexed from one lane to a next lane by serially connected air cylinders.
Proper guidance of the article after being discharged from the pivoting guide chute adjacent the entrance of a lane is desirable. Often, an article will lag as it leaves the pivoting guide chute, thus causing the article to not be positioned correctly in front of the lane. This may cause the article to be knocked further out of position with respect to the lane by the pivoting guide chute as the pivoting guide chute pivots to adjacent another lane entrance. Thus, it is another important object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which allows maximum guidance of an article after the article is discharged from a pivoting guide chute.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,193,078 discloses a chute driven by a pneumatic cylinder and indexed with a ratchet. U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,248 discloses a chute activated by back-to-back pneumatic cylinders. It is another important object of the present invention to provide a means for indexing a guide chute which is quicker and more positive than prior art devices.
Another important object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for automaticaly guiding articles conveyed on an article loading machine into parallel rows.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus which automatically releases bottles into lanes defined between dividers on an article loading machine and indexes the releasing of the articles at an entrance of a desired lane across the width of the conveyor.